Hannah Nunn: Papercut artist

With a few precise cuts, some soft etching and layers of paper silhouettes, Hannah Nunn has pared back the delicate forms of grasses, ferns and seed heads to a clean, distinctive style that decorates her lampshades. A batch of designs sits stacked in her Hebden Bridge studio in West Yorkshire; they are striking in their own right, but when the sun streams through the windows of this former textile mill, they come to life – illuminated and beautiful.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Photo: Hannah Nunn

Light is central to Hannah's work, although it took her a while to realise this. After studying crafts at Carmarthen College of Art and Design, her career was put on hold to raise her children – Ffion, now 20, and Euan, 19. "I was a young mum but also a frustrated artist, so when Euan started pre-school, I decided to rent a studio for a few hours a week," she explains. "I didn't really know what I was going to do, but when I was kitting out the space I bought a cutting mat and sharp knife, and just started playing about. I loved the precision of the blade and the way I could create intricate shapes with it."

Hannah had moved to Hebden Bridge in 1999, primarily for the schools, but was delighted to find a thriving creative community there, and shared an area in Northlight Art Studios, housed in another of the town's former mills, with a group of artists: "At first, I made greetings cards based on houses in the town, even cutting out the roof tiles. They were lovely and Liberty of London agreed to stock them but the process was so time-consuming, they were never going to make any money."

"I refer to that as my lightbulb moment!"

It was when Hannah held one of the silhouettes for a card up to the window that a fellow craftsperson asked whether she'd thought about making lights. "Of course, I refer to that as my lightbulb moment!" she says. "I applied to the Arts Council for a grant to research the idea. It took six months of sketching designs and sourcing elements to come up with a prototype."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The first lamp wasn't a great success. "It was very unattractive – made with lining paper and coloured gels placed over a milk bottle with a lightbulb stuck in it. But it had potential." She looked at endless paper samples until she found one that created the right cosy glow but wouldn't ignite if the lamp was knocked over, and tracked down plastic poppers to clip the lamps together. Crucially, she discovered it was light, and not colour, that was her medium: "When I abandoned the gels and just used shadows and light – layering paper and creating silhouettes instead – I realised I had the effect I was after."

Photo: Alun Callender

The initial lamps were cut by hand, so the designs had to be simple, but Hannah then invested in software that translates her drawings into patterns a laser cutter can follow. "It's amazing how delicate and intricate the results are, and it can etch paper to create a tonal effect I simply couldn't achieve by hand," she adds. Now her desk drawers are filled with A3 sheets of dainty allium stems and dandelion clocks, which she layers onto the shades before laminating and fastening them.

In 2003, she took her lamps to the British Craft Trade Fair to find stockists around the UK for her work, but couldn't help being drawn to the stands of other lighting artists. "There's something so magical about this type of work," she explains. "At the time, the studio I was renting was relocating, as the building had been bought by developers. I'd always had a fantasy about owning a shop and when I saw all these wonderful artisans, it struck me that I could run a lighting emporium."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Photo: Alun Callender

And so began Radiance, Hannah's store in Hebden Bridge. "I approached people at the fair, asking to stock their work. I don't think they realised I didn't yet have a premises!" Back home, plans fell into place as her neighbour, cabinet maker Bernard McNally, offered her a space he owned around the corner from her house and helped make shop fittings. Hannah filled it with her own designs, alongside those of other artists, including Amy Cooper and Colin Chetwood, and set up her studio in the back.

Weekly walks

After five years, she moved into the current premises on Market Street but found, as the business thrived, that she had less time for her own work. So she sought out a studio space nearby and established a new routine: "Tuesday is design and ideas day, from Wednesday to Friday I put the lamps together and on Saturday I'm in the shop (Matthew Easby runs it for me in the week)." On Fridays Hannah goes for a walk with photographer friend and studio sharer, Sarah Mason: "We head out to take pictures and collect seasonal finds for inspiration."

Photo: Alun Callender

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Intricate botanical silhouettes create a distinctive look

An online business course done on 'brainstorm Tuesdays' sparked another idea, and in 2013 Hannah branched out into wallpaper design: "I realised I'm a pattern maker, so taking my favourite motifs from the lamps – meadow grasses and leaves – and putting them into repeat was a natural progression." One of the few remaining UK specialist manufacturers, Anstey Wallpaper Company, produces her designs using a traditional 'gravure' method in which the pattern is etched onto a steel cylinder that is then rolled over the paper. Hannah's Paper Meadow, Beech Leaves and In The Tall Grass designs are now available in a palette of appealing nature-inspired hues.

Steady growth

She is also working on a range of fabrics. "I'd like to use them to make drum lampshades, so the material is important as it has to look good when the light's turned off, but give the right glow when it's on." Her business is set to grow but not, she says, at a pace that means she doesn't have time for her Friday walks. "They're an essential source of inspiration and give me new ideas for capturing the beauty of plant forms using light and shade." With such an elegantly simple approach, Hannah's designs look set to continue to capture the art of nature.

Country Living, Part of the Hearst UK Fashion & Beauty Network
Country Living participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.